Big News for The Dragon Doc Tales!

Dear Reader of The Dragon Doc Tales,

    Please forgive last week’s radio silence. Two big things happened since TDDT’s last post! 

    First, my very talented illustrator started her fall semester in school. Seventh Grade is keeping her extremely busy, and a dragon drawing for the blog was simply too much last week. However she and her skills are back on The Dragon Doc Blog this week. Please enjoy her work below!

    Second, The Dragon Doc Tales now has an editor! The extremely talented Stacey Goitia has 12 years of experience editing fiction, fantasy, and magical realism, and has edited multiple New York Times bestselling novels. Stacey does amazing work, and I feel quite fortunate and so pleased to have her on board. All 22 chapters and (approximately) 200 pages should be ready for publication in early 2022. I’m so excited, I could hug a dragon!

    I will continue to keep readers and followers updated on The Dragon Doc Tales’ progress. Meanwhile, enjoy this excerpt from chapter 12.

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        “What’s up?”

        “Hey I need your wildlife-wrangling skills.”

Now she was really perplexed. “For… what?”

“Come here and look at this.”

She paused a moment, turned off the engine, and reluctantly got out of her car. It was probably three in the morning after all, and I couldn’t blame Jess for her reticence.

Leading her toward the corner of the building, I fervently hoped my assessment of Jess’s mindset was accurate, sincerely wanting this introduction to go well. The dragon had retreated into the shadows between the clinic and the privacy fence.

“So these, umm, creatures have been visiting me for treatment for years now. Fair warning, they’re big, and you have to be careful around them, but they’re… uhh, mostly harmless.”

Jess’s expression was of utter bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”

We were at the corner of the building, and I stopped, facing her. “Jess, you know how we’ve been talking about dragons, and how fun they would be as patients?”

She frowned at me. “Yes….?”

Turning toward the darkness of the side yard, I quietly called to the dragon. “It’s okay, you can come out!” I hoped the dragon was still there, and hadn’t pulled a disappearing act on me like the big female had several months before.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then I heard a quiet snort, a heavy footstep, then another. Next to me, Jess tensed, her eyes wide, but she stood her ground. Touching her elbow, I asked her to step back and give our patient some room. She shot me a puzzled look but complied, and we both backed into the parking lot.

  Another footstep, then another. Leaves rustled. There was something not quite right about the dragon’s footsteps; they were uneven, some falling more heavily than others.

The dragon’s nose appeared, quietly snorting again, followed by the rest of the dragon’s head. My gaze swiveled between the dragon and Jess’s face, closely monitoring her reaction. Her eyes were wide with shock, mouth gaped, but there was excitement in her eyes, if perhaps a little fear as well.

  “NO WAY! NO WAY! NO FREAKING WA—”

“Jess, ssshhhhh!” I hissed at her. “You’ll frighten him!”

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Until next week! Take care, and watch out for dragons.

The Dragon Doc ?